Afforestation project to increase Kingdom’s green cover — Kharabsheh

AMMAN — Minister of Environment and Minister of Agriculture Saleh Kharabsheh said that the national afforestation project will open the way for “rebalancing the ecosystem by working to increase the vegetation which has been negatively and significantly affected recently”.

The national afforestation project, launched by the Ministry of Environment in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, aims to plant 10 million forest trees during the next decade.

“The natural degradation of forests has been due to the ageing of trees and changing weather conditions, so this project aims to expand and increase the green area in all regions of the Kingdom,” said Kharabsheh in a press statement.

In addition to afforestation and planting trees on the sides of external and internal roads, Kharabsheh stressed that the project addresses the need to “create a permanent governmental management that is concerned with the sustainability of forests in the Kingdom”.

Kharabsheh noted that this management will be trusted with the maintenance and management of forests as well the creation of periodic reports on the progress of the national project’s work.

During a meeting on Thursday in the presence of several heads of environmental associations and other concerned parties, Kharabsheh said that the principle of partnership with local communities will be adopted to “provide the necessary infrastructure to support the project while entrusting local communities with the developmental process”.

He pointed out that the project “contributes significantly to preserving biological diversity and strengthening environmental systems in Jordan while also combating desertification”.

Desertification, according to Kharabsheh, has become “one of the major problems that requires attention, especially by civil society institutions and environmental associations who are strategic partners of the Ministry of Environment”.

“The ministry is counting on the role of environmental societies and other local communities on providing assistance to places that could not be covered by the ministry in this project,” he added.